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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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 Posted: 31-Jul-2013 17:32 Post subject: Robotech Toys, Battletech Toys. |
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Last week, Harmony Gold filed suit against Hasbro, claiming that a toy Hasbro made available at the San Diego Comic-Con (a G. I. Joe Skystriker fighter plane dolled up to look like the 1980s Transformer character Jetfire) infringed upon the design of the Veritechs from Robotech.
This has led to a discussion over on Transformers fansite Allspark.com about both the nature of the suit and HG's chances of prevailing.
As part of it, several posters - such as myself - have noted that Hasbro could easily buy HG outright if the company makes enough of a nuisance out of itself; perhaps the only reason why Hasbro has not yet done so is because HG has diversified itself into such fields as real estate, fields that Hasbro would likely have to divest itself of as soon as the purchase was completed.
Well suppose, for a moment, that Hasbro did buy out HG, or at least HG's rights to the Robotech franchise.
Knowing Hasbro, they would likely try to capitalize on this by either releasing new Robotech toys themselves and/or by trying to make arrangements with Japanese partner Takara-Tomy (who owns Tatsunoko Productions, one of the companies that first worked on the Macross anime) so that third-party firms like Toynami could release product here in America.
If we started seeing Macross mecha released in stores again, how many people here would consider buying them and re-purposing them as their Battletech counterparts?
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"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
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Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2013 17:57 Post subject: Robotech Toys, Battletech Toys. |
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Hasbro will end up winning and we can hope this is the death knell for HG, they are trying to do the same thing here they did to FASA and I willing to bet they are hoping for an out of court settlement.
This is another case of them being a day let and a dollar short once more.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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chihawk
Clan Blood Spirit
Master Bartender
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2013 18:36 Post subject: Robotech Toys, Battletech Toys. |
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The only way Hasbro doesn't crush HG is if Hasbro decides it's not worth their time and writes a check to HG for them to go away. Otherwise HG will likely no longer be a business entity when the trial is over..
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Kraken
Federated Suns
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Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2013 20:43 Post subject: Robotech Toys, Battletech Toys. |
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What I'd love to see happen is for Hasbro to buy Harmony Gold outright and spin off those ventures that are separate from HG's intellectual properties.
If Hasbro and Takara-Tomy could make a deal with Big West, then they would largely have sole ownership of the Macross franchise (at least in Japan, the United States, and Canada) outside of whatever remaining rights the stakeholders of Central Park Media and ADV had to Macross II and Macross Plus.
Robotech could return to television via The Hub, the network that Hasbro co-owns with American Greetings and Discovery Networks; they would have to air it post-watershed due to the censors becoming more restrictive on content in "kids'" programs, but all Hasbro would have to do is put the existing Sentinels episodes into the rotation and the ratings would almost immediately go up a few points. Meanwhile, Hasbro could attempt a "dry run" consisting of a limited selection of new action figures that make use of the new standardized 4-inch figure construction that they've implemented in order to see if it would be feasible for a full North American toy line.
If fan demand appears to be great enough, then perhaps Hasbro could convince Shout Factory (who they have a close relationship with) to finally give Macross Frontier a US release, albeit likely Japanese-only. From there, if Hasbro can find the old scripts & concepts that Carl Macek & co. were working on, they could potentially finish off Sentinels; Hasbro has a working relationship with at least two animation studios, and many of the original talent involved with Robotech (like voice actors Cam Clarke and Tony Oliver) are still in the business.
Robotech fans would win because the rights to the franchise would be in the hands of someone who would actually be smart enough to monetize it again.
We'd win because (outside of the schadenfreude) we'd potentially get some nifty BTech product by proxy.
It'd be up in the air, however, as to whether or not the Macross designs would be allowed to be seen again, however; Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast, who in turn own TSR, and so Hasbro might not be willing to "help out a rival".
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"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Kraken
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